Navy coordinates rescue of 11 people on boat

The Navy coordinated, on Sunday, the rescue of 11 crew members of a Portuguese-flagged fishing vessel with “uncontrollable flooding and in an imminent state of sinking”, northeast of São Miguel, in the Azores, it was announced this Monday.

The operation, which began at 11:39 am local time (one hour more in Lisbon), was carried out by the Ponta Delgada Maritime Search and Rescue Coordination Center (MRCC Delgada), with the support of the merchant vessel MV Bushu Maru , registered in the Bahamas.

The 11 crew members were on board the fishing vessel Carmen, flying the Portuguese flag, “ which was experiencing uncontrollable flooding and was in imminent danger of sinking , approximately 300 nautical miles, equivalent to approximately 560 kilometers, northeast of the island of São Miguel,” the Navy said in a statement.

“The rescue of the 11 crew members, who were already on the life raft, was carried out at 16:21 (local time), by the merchant ship Bushu Maru, which was sailing approximately 20 nautical miles away, the equivalent of 37 kilometers away,” he said.

The crew of the vessel, of Portuguese, Indonesian and Moroccan nationalities, traveled aboard the Bushu Maru to their destination port, Dunkirk, in France.